Feb 10
Minor insomnia. Five hours of sleep isn’t terrible. Plus, I might as well stay awake for as much of the adventure as I can.
Coffee before asana class at 7:30–good idea! Desiree’s theme today is about expectation and disappointment. And backbends! It’s totally perfect as most of us are coming to this journey into India as first timers, we venture into the unknown With expectations– just like backbends. What’s cool is that flexibility in the upper back comes from exploring ways and means of really lifting your heart. We lift from the support of the shoulder blades hugging strongly in and literally offering the heart from the back to the front. This bursts the front body open with beautiful heartful posture. Oh yeah and of course we practice it upside down in peacock pose and handstand. Once again an exploration of the heart leads us confidently and skillfully into the unknown. Instead of moving in to this work with expectations of how we think it should be, which often is the set up for disappointment, we honor the alignment principles without pushing beyond or too hard and see where the body goes. When given the chance to take its natural course, the body is so brilliant! When properly aligned she comes into optimal balanced operation even in upsidedowm backbends! We let go of expectations, adhere to the structure of this trip which is to see The Many Faces of India–and like in asana, not try and force anything and the magic just bubbles up and all around us. The sights the smells the unknown it ALL works out and the beauty of India reveals itself. We don’t miss out on any of it because we aren’t limited by preconceived expectations. My heart is open to whatever happens here.
Tonight I am sleeping on a Kettuvallum house boat in the the back water canals of Kerala. The huge orange sun set over a rice paddy to the soundtrack of exotic birds, moos of Holy Cows, and the ethereal melody of men chanting and singing prayers in the distance. All this and we have a/c in our cabin–which of course was unexpected 🙂
– YogiPod posting from India using iPhone
Location:Allepey Kerala India
Thanks for the life lesson today Melanie, I shall keep it in the forfront of my mind…keep posting, we are all reading!
So many heartfelt thanks for sharing your journey with us – I am greatly enjoying picturing where you are and what you are doing – allowing us to open our hearts as well.